Kathmandu, April 8 -- Prime Minister Balendra Shah held a joint meeting with 17 Kathmandu-based ambassadors at Singhadurbar on Wednesday-breaking with a long tradition of individual, unstructured meetings with foreign envoys. On the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs separately briefed all Cabinet ministers on Nepal's diplomatic code of conduct for the first time since its enforcement in 2011.

Together, these back-to-back moves amount to the most deliberate reset of Nepal's diplomatic posture in years, foreign policy observers said, a signal that the new government intends to consolidate foreign policy authority, reduce mixed messaging, and move from personality-driven engagement with the international community towards a more coh...